Channel 9Microsofthttp://mschnlnine.vo.llnwd.net/d1/Dev/App_Themes/C9/images/feedimage.pngChannel 9http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/on10user_MicroMiel/Posts
Channel 9 keeps you up to date with the latest news and behind the scenes info from Microsoft that developers love to keep up with. From LINQ to SilverLight – Watch videos and hear about all the cool technologies coming and the people behind them.http://channel9.msdn.com/Niners/on10user_MicroMiel/Posts
enTue, 03 Mar 2015 23:10:20 GMTTue, 03 Mar 2015 23:10:20 GMTRev98125SoftKinetic: Bye Bye Wii

Game developers, game publishers, and game console manufacturers are looking for ways to differentiate in this increasingly competitive marketplace. Transforming the user experience through an immersive, transparent (marker-less) and intuitive interface represents a fantastic opportunity to establish a leadership position in the next generation action, casual, sports and fitness gaming markets. The commercial availability of low-cost 3D depth sensing devices is about to make this revolution possible.

Softkinetic anticipated the availability of such 3D depth sensing cameras and is today the leading provider of 3D gesture recognition solutions for building immersive, transparent and intuitive interfaces and game plays.

Basically this company is using one single infrared camera to capture X, Y and Z coordinates of any moving object. They created an SDK that will allow any input device to be linked to the 3D movements detected by the camera, so that you can control any application with full body movement. The technology they use for that is called "Softkinetic iisu™" and it's the most advanced 3D gesture recognition software platform available today. iisu is compatible with all major 3D depth sensing devices and allows developers to build natural, immersive, transparent and intuitive interfaces for games, interactive marketing, fitness, industrial simulation, education and military applications.

Check out their demos on their site and see for yourself how promising this superb technology is. Bye-bye Wii with your battery consuming remotes. ]]>http://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/micromiel/SoftKinetic-Bye-Bye-WiiA little while ago, on the quarterly company meeting, we've had a 'mystery guest' - just like 'we' always do. This time it was a promising startup with a technology that blows away all competition. Meet SoftKinetic, a Belgian company with ideas that will rock your world! Game developers, game publishers, and game console manufacturers are looking for ways to differentiate in this increasingly competitive marketplace. Transforming the user experience through an immersive, transparent (marker-less) and intuitive interface represents a fantastic opportunity to establish a leadership position in the next generation action, casual, sports and fitness gaming markets. The commercial availability of low-cost 3D depth sensing devices is about to make this revolution possible. Softkinetic anticipated the availability of such 3D depth sensing cameras and is today the leading provider of 3D gesture recognition solutions for building immersive, transparent and intuitive interfaces and game plays. Basically this company is using one single infrared camera to capture X, Y and Z coordinates of any moving object. They created an SDK that will allow any input device to be linked to the 3D movements detected by the camera, so that you can control any application with full body movement. The technology they use for that is called &quot;Softkinetic iisu™&quot; and it's the most advanced 3D gesture recognition software platform available today. iisu is compatible with all major 3D depth sensing devices and allows developers to build natural, immersive, transparent and intuitive interfaces for games, interactive marketing, fitness, industrial simulation, education and military applications. &quot;Bird&quot;: demonstration - 3D gesture recognition Softkineticby pietergcCheck out their demos on their site and see for yourself how promising this superb technology is. Bye-bye Wii with your battery consuming remotes.http://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/micromiel/SoftKinetic-Bye-Bye-Wii
Fri, 22 Feb 2008 18:15:00 GMThttp://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/micromiel/SoftKinetic-Bye-Bye-WiiMiel Van OpstalMiel Van Opstal0http://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/micromiel/SoftKinetic-Bye-Bye-Wii/RSSTechnologySoftKineticMotionintuitive interfacesInkSeine Demoin an earlier post on my blog, if you want to know more about that.

The partnership with RTBF includes an exclusive content delivery with podcasts and digital radio (and tv programs) for the Media Center platform through the very well-known interface. This content can be consulted if you set the Media Center settings to Belgium/French, and will extend pretty fast as new content will be made available on a swift pace.

I've also done a 10 minute demo of InkSeine, a brilliant application for tablet PCs (I also reported on that earlier). Luc Van Braekel and Maarten Schenk, two of the invited and present bloggers, both recorded the session and I'm posting Luc's clip below, since Maarten's cam wasn't able to get the screen capped clearly.

Under normal conditions, the web search would go faster and I’d show off a little more features, but since there was no wifi available, I had to uplink my phone to 3G and connect to the internet over USB. That caused a small delay in the demo-flow but still, it went pretty well. Enjoy the demo. Thanks againfor the USB cable, Maarten

]]>http://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/micromiel/InkSeine-DemoWe've had another cool Circle of Media where we announced the DreamSpark program and a new partnership for Media Center with RTBF, a French spoken national broadcasting company. The full DreamSpark announcement can be found in an earlier post on my blog, if you want to know more about that. The partnership with RTBF includes an exclusive content delivery with podcasts and digital radio (and tv programs) for the Media Center platform through the very well-known interface. This content can be consulted if you set the Media Center settings to Belgium/French, and will extend pretty fast as new content will be made available on a swift pace.I've also done a 10 minute demo of InkSeine, a brilliant application for tablet PCs (I also reported on that earlier). Luc Van Braekel and Maarten Schenk, two of the invited and present bloggers, both recorded the session and I'm posting Luc's clip below, since Maarten's cam wasn't able to get the screen capped clearly. Under normal conditions, the web search would go faster and I’d show off a little more features, but since there was no wifi available, I had to uplink my phone to 3G and connect to the internet over USB. That caused a small delay in the demo-flow but still, it went pretty well. Enjoy the demo. Thanks againfor the USB cable, Maarten http://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/micromiel/InkSeine-Demo
Thu, 21 Feb 2008 19:13:00 GMThttp://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/micromiel/InkSeine-DemoMiel Van OpstalMiel Van Opstal0http://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/micromiel/InkSeine-Demo/RSSInkSeineCircle Of MediaEU Innovation Day: Mobile Living. I really like where this is going, and I am wildly enthusiastic about a touchy interface in my house like that. That is so cool. At least to me, it beats the regular message board or giant cork pin cushion in the kitchen which is mostly overstacked with post-it notes anyway. The future is looking better and better!

Video: Mobile Living]]>http://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/micromiel/EU-Innovation-Day-Mobile-LivingAnother glance in the future and at the same time an example of a real experiment in South Africa, this time coming from the Cambridge department of Microsoft’s Research heaven. In this demo, we’re being introduced to how mobile communication can help spread information in regions where broadband is not as penetrated as it is in the Western hemisphere, through content delivery over the mobile network. Another part of the demo takes us through the concept of ‘living tomorrow’, focusing on how families would communicate in the future. So the story as it goes on the one hand is how ‘public’ communication works, when strangers request and share information. On the other hand, the communication happens in a closed group, e.g. a family, where all members know each other. The level of communicating is different, more personal. I really like where this is going, and I am wildly enthusiastic about a touchy interface in my house like that. That is so cool. At least to me, it beats the regular message board or giant cork pin cushion in the kitchen which is mostly overstacked with post-it notes anyway. The future is looking better and better! Video: Mobile Livinghttp://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/micromiel/EU-Innovation-Day-Mobile-Living
Sun, 09 Dec 2007 02:13:00 GMThttp://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/micromiel/EU-Innovation-Day-Mobile-LivingMiel Van OpstalMiel Van Opstal0http://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/micromiel/EU-Innovation-Day-Mobile-Living/RSSmobile photography digital lifEU Innovation Day: Virtual Lego. People were intrigued, wanted to see and learn and wanted to try and understand how this was possible. Other ways in which this software could be used include: a folder of a car that, when put under the camera, would rez the car and make it ride over the folder. One last example: you could also put a DVD box or DVD under the camera, and if it is programmed to do so, the screen will display the trailer of the DVD. I see a lot of very cool things happening in stores and on exhibitions if you can bring in a technology like this one. It’s absolutely amazing and as I was discussing with Kris… this has a lot of potential.

Video: Virtual Lego]]>http://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/micromiel/EU-Innovation-Day-Virtual-LegoOne of the coolest things I saw at the Innovation Day was a demo done with a Lego box. A software program was preset with the characteristics of the object that needed to be shown, in this case the contents of the Lego box. The a camera was set up to film the box. The software then interpreted the box and rezzed the contents on top of it. Obviously this is just one of the things the software could do, but it is by far one of the better ways to create some WoW about your product. This booth was crowded all the time. People were intrigued, wanted to see and learn and wanted to try and understand how this was possible. Other ways in which this software could be used include: a folder of a car that, when put under the camera, would rez the car and make it ride over the folder. One last example: you could also put a DVD box or DVD under the camera, and if it is programmed to do so, the screen will display the trailer of the DVD. I see a lot of very cool things happening in stores and on exhibitions if you can bring in a technology like this one. It’s absolutely amazing and as I was discussing with Kris… this has a lot of potential. Video: Virtual Legohttp://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/micromiel/EU-Innovation-Day-Virtual-Lego
Sun, 09 Dec 2007 00:21:00 GMThttp://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/micromiel/EU-Innovation-Day-Virtual-LegoMiel Van OpstalMiel Van Opstal0http://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/micromiel/EU-Innovation-Day-Virtual-Lego/RSSeuinnovation lego virtual techEU Innovation Day: Video CollageSilverlight website, whilst talking about the benefits of Silverlight, both from a developer as from a consumer point of view. In between demos, I walked around a bit and went to interview and record the cool things that were on display. Below is an interview with the rep from MS Research Asia (Bejing, China). He brought with him an impressive piece of software that is called ‘Video Collage’. What it does is: it analyses the movie you upload into the tool, then it makes an image of all significant frames in the video and blends them in nicely so it forms some sort of thumbnail cloud. This gives you an overview of what is in the movie, and if you clip an image, you get taken instantly to that specific part of the movie. Nice work!

Video: Video Collage]]>http://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/micromiel/EU-Innovation-Day-Video-CollageOn December 4th, Carrie Longson and I got a booth on the exhibition floor to demo Silverlight and some cool applications that have been created with it so far. Apart from the fact that Carrie totally rocks with her demos, we got a quite a bunch of people that dropped by our booth and we showed off some superb cases of the Silverlight website, whilst talking about the benefits of Silverlight, both from a developer as from a consumer point of view. In between demos, I walked around a bit and went to interview and record the cool things that were on display. Below is an interview with the rep from MS Research Asia (Bejing, China). He brought with him an impressive piece of software that is called ‘Video Collage’. What it does is: it analyses the movie you upload into the tool, then it makes an image of all significant frames in the video and blends them in nicely so it forms some sort of thumbnail cloud. This gives you an overview of what is in the movie, and if you clip an image, you get taken instantly to that specific part of the movie. Nice work! Video: Video Collagehttp://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/micromiel/EU-Innovation-Day-Video-Collage
Sun, 09 Dec 2007 00:17:00 GMThttp://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/micromiel/EU-Innovation-Day-Video-CollageMiel Van OpstalMiel Van Opstal0http://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/micromiel/EU-Innovation-Day-Video-Collage/RSSmsresearch technology euinnovaWindows Live Services For NokiaSo… On October 10th at the Innovation Day in Utrecht, The Netherlands, I had the opportunity to demo all day long to all the people that stopped by at the Microsoft booth at the fair. Besides demos of SeaDragon, Photosynth, HD View, Home Server or Windows Mobile 6, I got another chance to play with the Roundtable a little. I did a little more than a dozen of short demos that day, but I had the most fun with Windows Live Services for Nokia devices. Yes indeederydoo! Fun on a Nokia, with Windows Live. Here’s how that goes:

There’s 4 services that are integrated in the Nokia OS, after you download the install files in the downloads folder. Watch the demo below to see how that works.

1. Live ContactsOnce you sign in for the first time your Live Contacts is auto-magically synchronized within the address book of the Nokia device. As well as names, addresses, email and the other usual stuff. Pretty unique is that the online presence and status of your contacts show up within the phone list. So now from within the device address book you can find whoever you want to communicate with and leverage the presence/status to determine the best way to reach them.2. Windows Live MessengerAt sign-in you can change your online picture and your status. Once online you obviously can browse your messenger contacts and take part in multiple conversations as you would expect. The services integrate features from within the phone, so when you are within a conversation you can send a voice clip, file or picture - either from the gallery or snap one with the camera3. Windows Live HotmailYour Hotmail gets loaded into a separate folder within the client. Because the emails are downloaded they are available when you are offline. Right now your email isn’t synchronized auto-magically, but its a simple process to goto options, select sync etc. When you are composing an email, just like messenger the phone features are integrated so that you can insert a picture, voice clip, video or other phone right into the email message.4. Windows Live SpacesNot surprisingly there is good Spaces support. On Nokia devices there is an application called ‘online share’ which comes with plugins for Flickr and Vox and now there is Spaces support too. There is a simple process to activate the service by adding your Live ID and once that is done the Gallery is now Live enabled. It’s super easy, select the photo you want, goto options, open online service and it will promote you to add a title and text and the the image is load up to your blog.

For screenshots of these thingies, please visit Phil Holden’s blog [you’ll see I stole borrowed most of the words above from there too. He just said it so well Thanks Phil !]

And as for the demo of how this thing goes, I had the chance to meet up with Kris Hoet, whose device I borrowed to demo in Utrecht last week. I geared up the cam and let Kris have is way to show off the goodies.

]]>http://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/micromiel/Windows-Live-Services-For-Nokia So… On October 10th at the Innovation Day in Utrecht, The Netherlands, I had the opportunity to demo all day long to all the people that stopped by at the Microsoft booth at the fair. Besides demos of SeaDragon, Photosynth, HD View, Home Server or Windows Mobile 6, I got another chance to play with the Roundtable a little. I did a little more than a dozen of short demos that day, but I had the most fun with Windows Live Services for Nokia devices. Yes indeederydoo! Fun on a Nokia, with Windows Live. Here’s how that goes: There’s 4 services that are integrated in the Nokia OS, after you download the install files in the downloads folder. Watch the demo below to see how that works. 1. Live ContactsOnce you sign in for the first time your Live Contacts is auto-magically synchronized within the address book of the Nokia device. As well as names, addresses, email and the other usual stuff. Pretty unique is that the online presence and status of your contacts show up within the phone list. So now from within the device address book you can find whoever you want to communicate with and leverage the presence/status to determine the best way to reach them.2. Windows Live MessengerAt sign-in you can change your online picture and your status. Once online you obviously can browse your messenger contacts and take part in multiple conversations as you would expect. The services integrate features from within the phone, so when you are within a conversation you can send a voice clip, file or picture - either from the gallery or snap one with the camera3. Windows Live HotmailYour Hotmail gets loaded into a separate folder within the client. Because the emails are downloaded they are available when you are offline. Right now your email isn’t synchronized auto-magically, but its a simple process to goto options, select sync etc. When you are composing an email, just like messenger the phone features are integrated so that you can insert a picture, voice clip, video or other phone rhttp://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/micromiel/Windows-Live-Services-For-Nokia
Sat, 08 Dec 2007 14:05:00 GMThttp://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/micromiel/Windows-Live-Services-For-NokiaMiel Van OpstalMiel Van Opstal0http://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/micromiel/Windows-Live-Services-For-Nokia/RSSnokia windows mobile live servNXP Bluetooth Picture MagicLast week I was at the Inspiration Week in The Hague and I got the chance to look around and check out some pretty impressive things. It took me a while to get all the movies done, since I was kinda busy and on the road a lot, but I’m trying to backtrack and post as much videos as I can during the next couple of days.

So, here is an interview with Tim Van der Zijden from NXP, who came to the Inspiration Playground with a mobile phone, a printer and a digital picture frame. That might not be so inspirational at first sight, but the WoW factor is in the speed and ease of use of the devices. Just look at the video, and it’ll be all clear

]]>http://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/micromiel/NXP-Bluetooth-Picture-Magic Last week I was at the Inspiration Week in The Hague and I got the chance to look around and check out some pretty impressive things. It took me a while to get all the movies done, since I was kinda busy and on the road a lot, but I’m trying to backtrack and post as much videos as I can during the next couple of days. So, here is an interview with Tim Van der Zijden from NXP, who came to the Inspiration Playground with a mobile phone, a printer and a digital picture frame. That might not be so inspirational at first sight, but the WoW factor is in the speed and ease of use of the devices. Just look at the video, and it’ll be all clear Video: NXP Bluetooth Printinghttp://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/micromiel/NXP-Bluetooth-Picture-Magic
Sat, 08 Dec 2007 13:54:00 GMThttp://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/micromiel/NXP-Bluetooth-Picture-MagicMiel Van OpstalMiel Van Opstal0http://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/micromiel/NXP-Bluetooth-Picture-Magic/RSSnxp inspiration netherlands blDelFly Aerospace Engineering. This makes the DelFly II the world’s first ornithopter that has such a wide flight envelope without any adjustments in the plane’s configuration. This student graduation project has a lot of potential, especially when it comes to exploring small locations where little helicopters don’t have access to, or where they are sucked against the ceiling or wall due to natural forces. Think about exploring disaster sites of collapsed buildings, exploring pipelines and so on. These guys definitely deserved to be crowned with the ‘best product - best demo’ award, and a lot of the other exhibitors thought so too. Check out this small demo and be amazed. For me, this was a serious WoW moment.

For more information, check out the DelFly team website. ]]>http://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/micromiel/DelFly-Aerospace-EngineeringAt the Inspiration Week in The Hague, the booth next to mine was the one of the DelFly team. Booth keepers Bart Remes and Filip Saad stole the show with their 17 grams light weight devices that looked a lot like a dragonfly. DelFly is a project of the Technical University of Delft, The Netherlands. In December 2006, after a year of developing, designing and building, the team has exceeded any expectation and produced the DelFly II, with camera onboard. The device can fly not only horizontally with a velocity of 15m/s, but it can also hover and even fly backwards with a velocity of -0.5m/s. This makes the DelFly II the world’s first ornithopter that has such a wide flight envelope without any adjustments in the plane’s configuration. This student graduation project has a lot of potential, especially when it comes to exploring small locations where little helicopters don’t have access to, or where they are sucked against the ceiling or wall due to natural forces. Think about exploring disaster sites of collapsed buildings, exploring pipelines and so on. These guys definitely deserved to be crowned with the ‘best product - best demo’ award, and a lot of the other exhibitors thought so too. Check out this small demo and be amazed. For me, this was a serious WoW moment. Video: DelflyFor more information, check out the DelFly team website.http://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/micromiel/DelFly-Aerospace-Engineering
Sat, 08 Dec 2007 13:47:00 GMThttp://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/micromiel/DelFly-Aerospace-EngineeringMiel Van OpstalMiel Van Opstal0http://channel9.msdn.com/Blogs/micromiel/DelFly-Aerospace-Engineering/RSSdelfy TUDelft aerospace engine